WITH two wins from two games Jersey Rugby Football Club top London South II in their bid for automatic promotion to London I.

Their 20-15 win against Hayward’s Heath at St Peter on Saturday was always well-deserved although they allowed the visiting team to come back late into the game when inside centre Greg Parkes touched down close to the posts.

Following Joe Govett’s conversion the score was 20-15, and what seemed a fairly comfortable win was followed by a frantic last 18 minutes (including eight minutes of injury time) when Jersey rarely had a touch of the ball.

It was a far cry from the first half, when Jersey made three try-scoring opportunities – but only scored from one of them – and were dominant in all phases of the game.

However, as coach Barry George said afterwards: ‘A win’s a win, however ugly it is.

When we were ten points up we were content to sit on our laurels.

We blew some try-scoring chances, but the main problem was that our core skills let us down.

‘I think the key to our winning was in the first ten minutes of the second half when we kept them out.

Hayward’s Heath are a good side.

They’ll be a lot harder to knock over when we play them again in March.’ Director of coaching Dai Burton praised both Christian Weald, at full-back, and also flanker Latu Maka’afi for their tireless displays in defence but he was scathing about Jersey’s last 15 minutes when they kept kicking the ball away, even though they were winning no line-out ball.

‘No, I didn’t enjoy those final minutes,’ he said, adding that Jersey should have won the game long before that.

As for visiting coach Mark Jordan, he was far from impressed by his own club’s contribution to the opening 40 minutes.

‘Not to take anything away from Jersey, but we lost this game because we didn’t play to our strengths.

Pre-season we’ve looked to stamp our mark on the game, playing how we want the game to be played.

We didn’t do that.

We’ve six teenagers in the side including two 17-year-olds.

Come March, at the Heath, and Jersey will find they’re playing a very different team.

Having said that, the back row were tremendous and the (Jersey) No 9 is the best scrum-half I’ve seen this year.’ Despite losing Sam Tuia to the sin bin after only two minutes for interfering with a Hayward’s Heath player who was chasing a high kick upfield, Jersey went ahead in the 11th minute thanks to a booming Jon Swift kick and a strong run from Ryan Morgan, with the ball eventually coming back to the left for Weald to score.

Swift converted, and then gave Jersey a 10-0 lead three minutes later with a penalty when the opposition backs were all offside.

Between then and the 40th minute, however, both Swift and Richard Stevens should have scored when they had clear runs for the line.

Instead, following a 40m penalty by full-back Joseph Govett, in the 38th minute; a looping run by outside centre Sam Parteger was followed by a short pass to James Trevis who darted over the line, despite two defenders diving on top of him as he scored.

With 38 minutes gone, and despite Jersey’s dominance, the home side were only two points clear and all of their possession to date had counted for little.

After that came the real turning point in the game when, after the break, Jersey were pinned into their own 22 for fully 15 minutes.

During that time the back row were magnificent and even when Jersey gave away two quick penalties Hayward’s Heath never looked likely to score.

Instead, from a seemingly innocuous restart from his own 22, the Hayward’s Heath man of the match, No 10 Matthew Jarrett, could only watch in horror as Jersey captain Kern Yates charged down his kick, ran onto the ball, and touched down ahead of two defenders.

Swift converted and, 17-8 ahead, Jersey had reasserted their authority on a game they always looked like winning.

Another Swift penalty made it 20-8 and Jersey were coasting until centre Greg Parkes made it 20-13, with only minutes left to go.

After Govett’s conversion, Jersey seemed content to play out time but they hadn’t allowed for referee Matt Chapman’s extraordinary time-keeping.

For another full eight minutes after 80 he allowed the game to straggle out and during that time Jersey touched the ball only twice; once at a break down and once, finally, at a scrum.

Thankfully, after that, Jersey, in George’s words, had ‘won the game ugly’.

Jersey: Christian Weald, Richard Stevens, Sam Tuia, Steve O’Brien, Ryan Morgan, Jon Swift, Keiaho Bloomfield, Andy Mayo (Jon Brennan), Josh Chamier, Jim Brimelow, John Allo, Talite Vaioleti, Latu Maka’afi, Graham Bell, Kern Yates.

Hayward’s Heath: Joe Govett, Nicholas Milner, Sam Pargeter, Greg Parkes, James Trevis, Matthew Jarrett, Simon Field, Jon Salisbury, David Wattam, Adam Healey, William Stutchbury, Jack Emmerson, Ashley Halsey, Huw Jenkins, Hilary Itela.